Anyone who has paid attention to the state of American public education knows we have serious problems. In places like Chicago and New York City, teachers — and teachers' unions — see public schools not as houses of education and learning, but as indoctrination factories over which they wield tremendous power. And wield it they do. In those cities, students have been exposed to radical, far-Left ideologies that include pulling them out of school to "protest" on May Day and sneaking "fugitive pedagogy" into curricula. New York schools are facing a civil rights probe over anti-Israel, antisemitic indoctrination of students as young as five years old.
All that Leftist indoctrination takes time away from actual teaching, and — coupled with the massive learning loss from COVID-era lockdowns and remote learning — American students have seen a massive decline in their reading scores in the past decade.
Reading scores, 3rd graders to 8th graders, 2015 to 2025. This is a national tragedy. pic.twitter.com/y5CRnTWJyP
— Jean Twenge (author of 10 RULES, GENERATIONS) (@jean_twenge) May 13, 2026
In fact, scores have fallen in all but three states.
JUST IN: Reading scores for students in grades 3 through 8 have fallen in 47 of 50 states since 2015.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) May 14, 2026
This includes this writer's home state of Wisconsin, where students are lagging in the post-pandemic era.
Wisconsin ranks 33rd out of 38 states in math and 30th out of 35 in reading for post-pandemic recovery. This should be a five alarm fire for everyone.
— Kyle Koenen (@realkylekoenen) May 13, 2026
If we want Wisconsin's future to be bright then we must raise expectations and get back to the basics. https://t.co/AvUiwk7Fjo
It is shameful.
And almost no one, especially in the news media, will even think to blame the COVID Panic, even though that is very obviously the biggest educational event in modern history and very clearly a big part of this tragic equation…
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) May 13, 2026
😡🤦♂️🤮
No. The Democrats will do what they always do: blame Republicans. They will claim that President Trump shutting down the Department of Education is at fault, that Republicans don't "adequately fund" public schools (despite massive spending to the contrary), and that we need to end school choice and homeschooling to improve the failing public system.
Recommended
The mentality of some of the teachers and the teachers' unions proves this, by the way.
This woman is still in charge of LA's Teachers Union, saying that she doesn't care if kids can do math.
— Everybody is Insane (@colorblindk1d) May 13, 2026
The rest of the article just gets worse:https://t.co/q0KpWDI1lf pic.twitter.com/JoKij4OJZ6
"There is no such thing as learning loss," says Cecily Myart-Cruz. "Our kids didn't lose anything. It's okay that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup."
Incredible. Simply incredible.
It's a threat to the nation.
— Brent A. Williams, MD (@BrentAWilliams2) May 13, 2026
A systematic failure of the teacher's unions and much of what makes up so-called "progressivism".
Yes, it is. The Left wants us to fail. They want an illiterate, dependent class of voters they can use to maintain a stranglehold on power.
Allowing a foreign invasion of tens of millions of people who don’t speak English and then forcing their children into American schools will obviously lead to massive declines in the average aptitude scores of students in American schools. https://t.co/vHuEbs1jGS
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 14, 2026
Mass immigration without assimilation is also part of it.
The school system is graduating kids that can't read or write. pic.twitter.com/aZCo6dkImN
— Conor McJeeter (@ConorMcJeeter) May 14, 2026
As is the soft bigotry of low expectations.
The scandal hiding in plain sight is the collapse of American education.
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) May 14, 2026
And no 2028 candidates -- aside from Rahm Emanuel -- are talking about it. https://t.co/9cvAkNksem
They can't talk about it because this is the fruit of decades of Democrat control of public schools.
Who has been controlling American education for the last 30 years?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 14, 2026
We've had Leftists argue, with straight faces, that being literate and reading to your children is a form of "white supremacy" that disadvantages others. They want these low scores.
Leftists would rather kids be illiterate than admit Mississippi was entirely correct...and they were entirely wrong...about phonics. pic.twitter.com/ls6Hqf5mQc
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) May 14, 2026
They'll never admit that they were wrong about phonics because they're getting the outcome they do want: a compliant, obedient voter class that can't read or do math, and therefore can't question or understand their policies.
That's why Leftists genuinely believe Zohran Mamdani balanced NYC's budget in five months.
Dude. The winner of the 2024 election talked about it and is carrying out his promise to end the beurocracy that has allowed American education to collapse.
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) May 14, 2026
The system is trying to fight him every step of the way. You really should follow the news.
The purpose of a system is what it does. And we see what the American education system does.
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.
Help us fight back against Big Government waste and restore power to the states. Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member